Thursday, December 12, 2013

Obituary image graphic at Nelson Mandela's memorial service shown in the FNB Stadium stolen from ABC News.


Besides a totally fake sign language interpreter on the dignitaries' stage at Nelson Mandela's memorial service at the FNB Stadium on Tuesday - making South Africa the laughing stock of the world again and angering hearing impaired people around the world - the Nelson Mandela obituary image shown on the screens inside the stadium was stolen from ABC News.

The graphic was actually designed by ABC News digital designer Ma'ayan Rosenzweig and used by the event organisers of the memorial service.

Although used and projected inside the FNB Stadium, the obituary graphic was seen globally since the SABC News' pool feed send to other news channels and international broadcasters, and broadcasters who had their own cameras for media box reporting, all had the image in their background shots.

The tasteless and pathetic fake sign language interpreter used by the event organisers - who did nothing but basically flap his arms and make strange signs, if anything, during the proceedings - is already drawing criticism from international TV and TV news broadcasters.

The fraud did nothing but gesturing gibberish to a global audience of millions tuning in on Tuesday.

It would have been a joke if it wasn't so disrespectful to the legacy of Nelson Mandela, with his bizarre hand-gestures which had zero accuracy, were not accurate at all, and made no sense.

The fake was employed and used before to "sign" standing next to president Jacob Zuma at ANC events.

The embarrassing and major international scandal at Nelson Mandela's memorial service is one more terribly bad story originating from the South African event, coupled with the booing of president Jacob Zuma, and the SABC's ban on broadcasting the booing and censorship from any reporting in news bulletins on the public broadcaster.

It's not clear why this complete fraud was employed, or by whom, and who has now brought international shame to the country.